Roasted pumpkin and Sage burgers

This is one of those bizarre things that comes into my head that I think 'I can make that work if I just do xyz'.

Well.. kind of. It's one of those meals that tasted rather nice but didn't quite look as good as it could and didn't quite turn out the way I'd planned it. They were slightly sloppier than I'd intended. No problems with the flavour, just a bit messier to prepare.

Stats: - Serves four or five, depending on the size of the pumpkin, cooking time an hour and twenty minutes
Ingredients: -
one large culinary pumpkin
50g cooked and drained quinoa
one tablespoon of cumin
ten sage leaves
one beaten egg
four spring onions, finely sliced, stalks and roots discarded
75g breadcrumbs (I tend to blitz up the ends of loaves and store them in my freezer for occasions such as this - although perhaps dried might have helped with the consistency.)
plain flour
oil for frying - I used sunflower

Method: -

Preheat oven to gas mark nine. Clean the outside of your pumpkin, removing any stickers. Pierce the flesh in a few places to prevent it exploding while roasting. Place in a roasting tin and roast for forty-five minutes, until the skin is dark brown (but not burnt). The flesh should have shrunk away from the skin, making it far easier to peel.

Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and stringy centre and place the flesh into a large mixing bowl. Purée with a hand blender - draining excess liquid where possible. Add all of the remaining ingredients except for the flour and combine.

Cover a surface (dinner plate/chopping board/side) with plain flour. Form the pumpkin mixture into ten patties - you may need to squeeze out a little excess moisture. Coat both sides with flour.

Heat a frying pan or griddle with a tablespoon of oil. Over a medium heat shallow fry both sides of the patties - about five minutes on each side until the mixture crisps up.